GENRE CONVENTIONS

The song I have chosen to focus the production of my music video on is “Beyoncé – Run the World (Girls).” It reached the top ten in Australia, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, and South Korea; and was also a top twenty hit in Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The song includes samples of "Pon de Floor" by Major Lazer, following the same alternative hip hop-dancehall genres, mixed with Knowles' pop and R&B styles creating a hybrid genre.

This hybrid genre should provide a lot of complex, upbeat dance sequences performed in a group. The dance styles could be Hip-hop, Street, B-boying (break dancing), Popping, Locking, Studio Hip-hop, Improvisation, pedestrian movement, Liquid dancing, crumping, even contemporary. Or a combination, there could also be contemporary elements like is even ballet in the Kanye West – “Runaway” R&B music video.  Artists of this genre have created their own dance styles for their own music videos such as `LMFAO – “Party rock anthem”, they created a dance craze, the shuffle, for the lyrics “everybody shuffling”

The video should also portray moments of narcissism and voyeurism. Typically mainstream female artists, including Beyoncé, appear sexy and display moments of self-intimacy. If the song, of this genre category, is about love and relationships then there may also be a male or several males being intimate with women/the artist. This display of voyeurism attracts the audience, particularly the male audience. It can also create an aspirational quality, as the female audience want to be like the artist. Examples of this can be shown in Madonna - "vogue" and Wham - "club Tropicana", both from the Pop genre.

Alternative dance-hall music is associated with the clubbing lifestyle and this is typically where this type of music is played. References to drugs and alcohol are frequent in music videos of this kind. This can be seen in Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris -"we found love" of the Electro house dance pop genre. Hand held P.O.V shots combined with erratic movement may be used to represent intoxication. This technique adds interest and climax, and would be coherent with climaxes within the music.

Low angle long shots are conventional of this genre to create power and dominance in the artist. Again, this gives aspirational qualities to the video as the audience look up to the artist, and want to be cool in control and powerful like them. Establishing shots are also used to identify a location; these again are normally very low angled or high angled and can also be shot wide to create a film quality. MCU and CU are used to keep focus on the performer(s) and XCU are often used in these genres to create intimacy or intensity with an audience. It can also be used to make the audience feel uncomfortable. Shot length averages around 2 seconds and it cut rhythmically to the beat of the music. A lengthy shot can be used to contrast this in a section of a song to create a dynamic quality and to manipulate an audience. Shots are often cut into with other footage, usually of an event or location cut with a MCU of the artist miming to the lyrics. These are often cut so that the artists flashes on screen for a fraction of a second creating a strobe editing effect.

We expect high production and performance form this type of genre with the use of exotic locations, special effects, dramatic lighting and creative costumes. Some of these may include explosions, strobe lighting, low lighting, green screening, superimposition; this genre of the music industry is very competitive and so artists are forever coming up with new ideas to impress and entertain the audience. Smoke machines and dry ice are also used to create mystery and atmosphere. They can also be used to set up a club environment.

This particular genre can produce a variety of themes such as, nihilism, nostalgia, sex, romance and rebellion. These themes can be seen through the use of cinematography, mise-en-scene, props, locations and movement. These themes can also cross over and some videos may include more than one.

With this genre being hybrid it becomes eclectic with the mix of mainstream genres and alternative genres. This means that the audience is of a wide range. The audience would be female dominated age ranged between 12-35 and of low social glass groups due to the themes of crime, violence and domination.